Ratatouille with Pasta

Well, I dunnit, god damn it, I waited too long to post the recipe so I mostly forgot the amounts of each ingredient. It would figure that this was my best batch too! Oh well. Ratatouille is pretty improvisational anyway- depending on the sweetness of the tomatoes, the flavor in the vegetables, it can turn out like bland veggie poo or heavenly ambrosia, all else equal.

Food Reviews, Trinity Alps Trip: Cheddar Jack Cheese Spread from Packit Gourmet, Organic Garlic Pesto Frybread from MaryJane's Farm

A few weekends ago, my husband went on a weekend trip to the Trinity Alps with his friend Duncan, and puppy compatriot Guinness. He was hoping to reach Foster Lake on a ~17 mile loop over the course of 3 days. I'd packed him some homemade pasta with ratatouille, boxed macaroni and cheese for breakfast, homemade korean tofu soup (soondubu jjigae) for breakfast 2, homemade Thai curry soup, and other ready-made food to fill the gaps. I was excited to hear how the trip (and food) went on his return and asked him to take photos.

Food Reviews, Desolation Wilderness trip: Organic Chilimac from MaryJane's Farm

Looks better than it tastes, unfortunately

Macaroni and Cheese for breakfast. Why not? Calorie-rich, full of carbs and easy to prepare.

MaryJane's Farm Chilimac has tons of positive reviews all over the net. Our feeling: not bad, but not great either. For how delicious Annie's Organic Macaroni and Cheese boxes are, MJF is surprisingly lackluster. This could be done so well, so easily- why is the cheese so flavorless and the texture so floury?

It's not bad, but not worth the price, either, when such a simple dish is so easy to put together with a base of Annie's Mac.

Food Reviews, Desolation Wilderness trip: Organic Spuds w/Spinach & Cheese from MaryJane's Farm, Southwest Black Bean and Corn Salad from Packit Gourmet

A vivid blue gradient and a paintbrush-swipe of clouds just before the top of the Crystal Range. At this point, the terrain on the other side is a mystery. Just like the mystery that is dinner.

I was raised on mashed potato flakes. In fact, I think I preferred them to real mashed potatoes for a while. I'd have mashed potatoes with ketchup and fantasize about the french fries I was almost never allowed to have. I remember my grandfather, a self-proclaimed "gourmand" bitching to my parents at the Thanksgiving dinner table about me putting ketchup on his homemade mashed potatoes, shaking his head. I also remember buying the cup-o-mashed potato cups all throughout middle school. I'd rehydrate them with less water than recommended and somehow I really enjoyed the kinda crusty, kinda dense, concentrated flavor, not fully rehydrated quality of the whole thing. Anyway...given all this backstory, it's no surprise I really liked the MJF potatoes. And Dennis, who I didn't expect to like them, was enthusiastic too. "Getting back to my Scottish roots," he said.

Food Reviews, Desolation Wilderness trip: Copper Canyon Mudslide from Packit Gourmet

Horchata 'n' Vodka

So when I think mudslide, I think of a creamy, kahlua-flavored, chocolatey, boozey, milkshake concoction, the kind of drink a 10 year old would come up with.

As such, it was with the slightest disappointment and some curiosity that I opened the packet for Copper Canyon Mudslides and smelled cinnamon and rice. This is no mudslide, it's horchata. Organic horchata actually, which is pretty cool, kudos to Packit Gourmet for making this one organic.

Food Reviews, Desolation Wilderness trip: Potato Samosas with Mango Chutney from Packit Gourmet

Really, really good. SO worth the extra prep time to wrap/fry.

I had low expectations because I'd read a lot of negative reviews about the samosas when prepared cold. But holy shit...prepared hot, these were an easy 10. They needed a little salt and I could easily have eaten twice as much chutney as provided, but that's not really a criticism, is it?

Food Reviews, Desolation Wilderness trip: Jump-Start Smoothies from Packit Gourmet

It's a pain in the ass to get vegetarian protein on the trail without making some serious concessions on *ahem* abdominal comfort. I'm pretty sensitive to beans/TVP, and if I end up bloated, I'll sleep poorly and be generally uncomfortable and grumpy the entire week. I do whatever I can to minimize that by planning my meals accordingly and keeping the legumes to a minimum. A huge bummer, because if I had my way I'd eat legumes at every meal.

Food Reviews, Desolation Wilderness trip: Happy Hour Snack Pack from Packit Gourmet

Last Tuesday, Dennis and I were babbling on Facebook when I realized we were coming up on a 3 day weekend without plans. While the Diablo patch just hit and I was looking forward to playing games, neither Dennis nor I liked the idea of fermenting all weekend on the computer. There would be plenty of time to play games during the week, but only one 3 day weekend before Fall weather hit.

Packit Gourmet, Hawk Vittles and Mary Jane's Farm order

I'm very, very excited because I just ordered a bunch of food from Packit Gourmet, Hawk Vittles and Mary Jane's Farm to try out. Preparing all of our own food always just isn't realistic, so we'd like to develop a short list of pre-made favorites.

Vegetarian Chili with Cornbread

Not your run of the mill, sad chili here.

Flavor: 8/10

Ease at home: 6/10

Ease at camp: 5/10
Heat level: 5/10 

Times made: 2

Pizza

Now that I've made Pizza #1, the sky is the limit. We are having pizza on every trip, starting now.

Flavor: 9/10 (I think plain sauce will be tastier than meat sauce)

Ease at home: 6/10

Ease at camp: 3/10
Heat level: 0/10 (to taste)

Times made: 1

Resentfully dragging my legs like a bored child in a department store, angry with the altitude as though it oppressed me intentionally, I pulled the "birthday" entitlement card and coerced Dennis into a zero (well, almost zero) day. "This is my birthday trip, therefore we skip Sixty Lakes Basin."

Thai green curry, noodle veggie soup

Three weeks later, I'm still salivating. I know the coconut milk looks "broken", but there is no trace of grittiness. This appearance is the result of the coconut milk powder additives, and thankfully renders no unpleasant quality.

Flavor: 10/10

Ease at home: 8/10

Ease at camp: 10/10
Heat level: 8/10

Times made: 2

Wow, this one is insanely good. Graciously inspired by Dirty Gourmet, and adjusted to taste. If you wanted something really easy, something you could throw together at the last minute, you could follow the Dirty Gourmet recipe and use curry powder- I'm sure it would be delicious. However, if you have the time to dehydrate a few ingredients overnight, fresh curry paste makes an enormous difference and enables the use of fish sauce (which would have to be carried as a very stinky liquid, or omitted, otherwise).

I'm not the first to compile backpacking recipes, but like forecountry, the more recipes out there the better.

The stated purpose of this blog is to catalogue my experiments with backpacking recipes and dehydrating, the good and the bad, including general backcountry cooking lessons. I'm going to try and review popular pre-made backpacking meals and if they're awesome, do my best to reverse engineer the recipe. Most of the recipes here will be vegetarian or vegan with macro emphasis on carbs and fat, and will reflect our personal preference for organic/local/unrefined products.

Hopefully this proves an interesting resource. The only downside I've seen to most backpacking recipe books is the lack of photos- surely due to publishing and photography costs, but disappointing nonetheless. By providing a resource with photos and a variety of recipes rated on flavor and ease, this may grow to be a valuable reference for the hiker with good taste (and spare time).

JMT deer ruminating in a field of wild onions.